


all that we could do with this

by Julx3tte



Series: hidden beneath the kissing folds and lily pads [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boundaries Are Important, Consent is Sexy, F/M, Fluff, Lots of kissing, Not smut!!, Summer Heat, Tree Houses, Two love birds sitting in a tree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 18:17:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14699640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julx3tte/pseuds/Julx3tte
Summary: Harry led Ginny down a path in the backyard of the Potter family home, up to rope ladder that lead to Harry’s old treehouse.Ginny, brave and confident, volunteered to climb up first.“You’re wearing a skirt, Gin,” said Harry.Already a two rungs up, she stopped to inspect, and realized Harry was correct. “Yes?” she asked with a wink.She waited a moment for Harry’s fluster, before adding, “oh relax, I’m wearing shorts underneath. Want to see?”





	all that we could do with this

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I wanted to write something… closer to the heart. It’s not smut - I don’t think I’ll ever write graphic physical scenes, but it’s just as self serving I think. It’s emotional smut, of locating and respecting boundaries, of consent and desire, of intimacy and responsibility. And, most of all, of what it could look like to fall in love. I hope you enjoy. Please tell me what you think - comments are so valuable because these fics come out of real feelings and thoughts.

Harry led Ginny down a path in the backyard of the Potter family home, up to rope ladder that lead to Harry’s old treehouse.

Ginny, brave and confident, volunteered to climb up first.

“You’re wearing a skirt, Gin,” said Harry.

Already a two rungs up, she stopped to inspect, and realized Harry was correct. “Yes?” she asked with a wink.

She waited a moment for Harry’s fluster, before adding, “oh relax, I’m wearing shorts underneath. Want to see?” She gave a quick shake of her hips, making her skirt dance, and Harry immediately pinned his gaze straight down.

Ginny took the moment to climb up, sit on the ledge above, and whistle him over.

The inside of the treehouse was dusty. Harry had brought a blanket with him, and as he laid it in the center, it kicked up years old dust, which made the sunlight streaming through the windows hazy for a few moments.

Harry hadn’t been inside in years - certainly not since before his grandfather got sick. It had been his private escape, even more private than his tight family, or close friend group. Hermione had been up here, and Addy, and a boy he’d been best friends with for little league soccer. Sirius and Remus had helped build it - their mark was carved into a beam on a corner. 

Nowadays Harry didn’t want to escape. He wanted privacy, sure, from his parents’ gaze because they hadn’t stopped teasing him about the newspapers for months, but mostly a place he could have alone with Ginny.

There was something about bringing her here that tugged at Harry’s brain - it kept him up the previous night - and now that they were up here, and he could see her looking around, tracing the memories on the walls, observing the things he’d left up here, it made sense.

He couldn’t explain it into words, but it made sense. 

So, he walked right up to her - a slow and measured pace, waiting to receive more of her attention before each step. By the time he was an arm’s length away her eyes had drawn completely to him, tracing how what she saw in the treehouse were embodied in him.

He kissed her. With an arm on her waist, pulling her close, and another on her chin, holding her still, Harry used his lips to speak words he couldn’t speak. 

Ginny caught on immediately, knowing that he was communicating something important. Taking the time to listen to how his lips met hers, tenderly and gently. Without hunger, though she suspected that would come later.

She waited for him to pull away, then kissed his cheek and whispered, into his ear, “I love you too, Harry.”

 

* * *

 

 

On the floor of the treehouse was a dusty soccer ball, and a small stack of notebooks and pens. 

“That ball won me my first soccer tournament,” he said. “Rest of the team signed the white patches. I was… seven? My parents took the team out to pizza. That was the year Addy and I played on the same team.”

“When did this place get put up?”

“Since I can remember. It didn’t come with the house. We added the windows and the roof section when I was in middle school, and put in the desk over there when I was in high school. I did my homework in here sometimes, just to get some quiet.”

“And since then?”

“Since then… not much. I didn’t come here when my grandpa was sick. I didn’t want to escape, you know?”

Ginny let the silence fill the space between them for a moment. She looked around at the walls again. There were height markers with dates, and a initials on the wall - H.J.P., J.F.P., LJP, RL, SB. Carved on a wall were a wolf, a dog, and two deer, with the names “Fleamont and Euphie” engraved below.

Harry noticed her gaze. “My family took turns leaving me markings here when they made this place,” he explained. “Since there’s not many of us, everyone left something special.”

“What did you leave here,” Ginny asked?

Harry considered the question for a moment. 

“I don’t think I ever did,” he replied. Then he took Ginny to an unmarked pillar on the corner, and produced a knife from a cabinet on a wall. “You can leave something, though.”

Ginny almost cried - she caught herself, and looked at Harry, who’s face blocked the sunlight coming into the room such that it shone between his hair, which he awkwardly swept back. “I’d love to, Harry,” she said, taking the knife.

 

* * *

 

The treehouse was sweltering, so they laid down on the blanket, holding hands and staring at the ceiling in silence. It was an awkward moment. Too hot to move, too humid to speak. Their fingers touched and twitched, and inched closer and closer. 

Ginny acted before their hands moved to hold each other.

She rolled and straddled Harry’s legs, and waited a moment. The heat was oppressive, and inviting. With her eyes locked to his, she slowly removed her shirt, leaving her in a sports bra. She shook her hair free before dipping down to kiss Harry, who’s hands moved to her waist as soon as he realized what she was doing.

They kissed tenderly for a few moments, and then Ginny met Harry’s hands at her waist and grabbed them, pinning them on the ground, first by his ears, dipping down to meet his lips, and then above his head, extended.

She kissed his lips, then his cheeks, and below his ear, and his jaw, and every time her lips left and touched his skin again, he gave a low, rumbling “mmmm.” He squirmed a bit, playfully. He enjoyed when she took the lead - usually it happened after soccer practice, but he supposed it was a constant when she was sweaty and overheated.

She kissed Harry below his jaw, and reached down to unbutton his shirt, one button at a time, touching the skin underneath with two fingers, until she reached the last button. He wasn’t sure how far she meant to go, but he let her wiggle him out of his shirt when she tugged at it.

Ginny considered the now shirtless Harry -  _ like planning an attack _ , he thought. She put her lips on the right side of his neck first, and then the left; and then tracing his collar bones with her lips, nibbling a trail down to his sternum. The tenderness sent a wave down his spine, and his heart translated her actions into emotion:  _ let me adore you. _

She kissed above his heart - a harsh bite, which he yelped in response to. She kissed his breastbone, and Harry’s heart skipped a beat when she breathed warmly over it before and after her lips touched skin.

He was sweating too, and Harry’s hands lost themselves in her hair as soon as he realized they were free, cherishing the way she was showing him affection. He wound the flaming hair around his hands at the base of her head, and pulled tighter every time she gave him a kiss.

Lower, she kissed his stomach, feeling his ab muscles flex underneath. It was involuntary for Harry. His summer training had made him lean, but they weren’t used to such tender attention. 

Then, she kissed below his navel, hands on his hips, and his muscles tensed to force his hips to stay low on the ground. Harry’s eyes widened as he registered what she meant.

She paused, and looked up at Harry’s eyes, following his arms reaching down to hold her hair, and waited a moment. Harry considered (and to Ginny’s amusement, looked conflicted), and shook his head. 

Harry wanted to - go further. He’d definitely thought about this moment before, and now that it was in front of him, it was tempting to nod. But he could barely croak out the words,  _ I love you,  _ and if he couldn’t say it - if he couldn’t admit and confess to her what she meant, how could he act it out? So he shook his head, tugging gently to ask Ginny to slow down.

Ginny nodded. She slid her body to meet him with a kiss on the cheek, and sat on her knees to straddle him again.

They didn’t speak for a while. Harry admired how beautiful Ginny was, with sunlight gleaming on her freckled skin and flaming hair, intensifying them.

They were both sweating, and he noticed how flushed she was. In heat, here eyes were wide and gazing and she bit her lips looking at him.

He had filled out over the summer - a healthy summer of training, of working off the tension from school and the past year. He’d also tanned, and she ran a hand over his chest, leaving a scratch mark.

Harry left his hands on her thighs, drawing circles with his fingers. He caught himself inching them upwards, and Ginny gave a confused, then amused raise of the eyebrows.

“I really am wearing shorts, Potter,” she teased, before lifting the side of her skirt.

Harry followed her hands, touched the hem of her boyshorts, and looked back up at her. 

“I didn’t doubt yo-,” he started to reply. He trailed off as his eyes left her hips and followed her body up - her stomach, her mostly bare chest, and the freckles that covered her shoulders and bust. A cloud had moved, and a beam of sunlight drenched a spot right below her collarbone. She was gleaming, and the sunlight burned the memory into his mind.

“One day I will count all of them,” he whispered.

Ginny took a moment to consider what he meant. She didn’t reply, only sinking down to kiss him again, before laying at rest on his shoulder.

* * *

 

 

Harry wondered what he meant by “one day.” Was it in six months, when they were back in the rhythm of school? In a year, after he’s graduated? In two? 

As if sensing his thoughts, Ginny, her head still tucked between his chest and shoulder, croaked out, “so you’ve been thinking about us like this, eh?” She had a tone of mocked surprise, which made Harry laugh and say, “not like  _ that _ !” 

“One day, huh?” she replied. 

“Yeah. When it doesn’t take me an hour to tell you how I feel. When it’s automatic. It doesn’t have to be now, is what I mean.”

“We don’t have to do everything now,” she replied.

“Only what we want to.”

“You asked me what when we first met. ‘What do you want?’”

“Has that changed?”

“No,” replied Harry, and he bent to kiss her forehead, and bring an arm around her, and let the warm, familiar air carry him to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Several hours later, the sun was waning, and Harry woke up with a stretch. Ginny had rolled over to the other side of the blanket, taking some of it with her. Harry nudged her.

“I think we’re late to the barbecue,” he said, adjusting his glasses.

At the bottom of the ladder was a bucket of water balloons, and a note with the words,  _ Good Luck _ . The grill was out, and the patio furniture was set, but no one was in sight.

“Ominous,” Ginny observed as she picked up a balloon.

“You forgot your shirt,” Harry pointed out.

“Oh shi-” Ginny began, before a water balloon exploded on her.

“OPEN FIRE!”

Half a dozen balloons peppered the two, and they ran behind the tree for cover. Out from behind a shed, and a pile of leaves, and inside the house came Ron, Hermione, James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius, charging them with balloons - except Lily, who had a large water gun in her hand. She waited for the charge, then caught James with a spray on his backside, causing him to yelp-skip, turn around, and rush her.

All hell broke loose as Harry and Ginny joined the fray, and eventually, when all of the balloons were gone and everyone was dripping wet, Lily pulled out a stack of towels from behind a couch and handed them out.

“Food’ll be ready in a few,” she said.

“Thought you two could use a cool off, mate,” said Ron as he caught Harry with a wet hug. “Forget something, sis?” he pointed at Ginny.

“Just prepared for the moment,” she replied.

“And what have you two been up to,” said Harry as he wagged a finger between Hermione and Ron.

Hermione blushed, too embarrassed to speak.

“She took me to her library,” Ron said quietly.

Hermione had a library inside her parent’s house - it was a converted closet where she kept the books that had influenced her the most. Harry had never been there, but he’d known about it, and had seen the door. 

“That serious, huh?” he teased, hugging Ron and Hermione at the same time.

“I wanted him to know - what I want to accomplish and why,” Hermione replied.

 

* * *

 

Harry left the three to join Sirius, Remus, and James, who were taking turns cooking.

“Pronglet!” called Sirius.

“Thanks for the privacy,” he said to James.

“You’re an adult, Harry. Don’t need my nose in everything you do. Unless it’s sneaking into places you shouldn’t be,” he warned.

“I’m never going to live that down, am I?” Harry looked to Remus for sympathy, but Remus shook his head.

“Shouldn’t have gotten caught,” he said, before breaking out into laughter. 

Ginny joined them, and, as innocent as possible, asked, “caught doing what?”

Lily came out just in time to hear that, and called, “Oy Ginny, don’t get caught up with this lot. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.”

Ginny smiled, drifted over to Lily’s side, and said “Yes Mrs. Potter!” with a mock salute.

“Harry, Ginny, go get the plates please,” Lily assigned.

Inside, hunting down plates and utensils, Ginny caught Harry’s hand.

“I love your family,” Ginny said to Harry.

Harry’s words caught for a moment. His mind raced to say so many things -  _ you belong here, one day it’ll be your family too _ . He took a breath to steady himself.

“I love you.”


End file.
